The video below is one of the best 'video abstracts' from a scientific paper that we've ever seen (with the possible exception of the pee duration study). These Canadian researchers were interested in the extent to which people will obey instructions given by a robot versus a human. The experimenter "was either a human male, aged 27, or a small Aldebaran Nao humanoid robot (58cm tall), both given the pseudonym 'Jim'." The subjects were asked by the experimenter to rename hundreds of files from the "jpg" to the "png" extension. How far did they get before losing patience and quitting? Watch below to find out...
Would You Do as a Robot Commands? An Obedience Study for Human-Robot Interaction "This paper presents an investigation into how people respond to a robot posing as an authority figure, giving commands. This is an increasingly important question as robots continue to become more autonomous and capable and participate in more task scenarios where they work with people. We designed and conducted a human-robot interaction obedience experiment with a human and a robot experimenter, and our results highlight the complexity of obedience and detail some of the variables involved, and show that, at the very least, people can be pressured by a robot to continue a highly tedious task. This paper offers an exploration of the ethical challenges of conducting obedience human-robot interaction studies, the results from one such study, and a set of initial guidelines for this area of research." Related content: NCBI ROFL: Friday flashback: This robot is for science…yeah, that's the ticket…NCBI ROFL: Bionic insect cyborgs: 90% insect, 10% robot, 100% terrifying.NCBI ROFL: Scientists watching babies watching robots.
